OF A RANCHMAN 37 



follow. But as regards taking the land, at 

 least from the western Indians, the simple 

 truth is that the latter never had any real 

 ownership in it at all. Where the game was 

 plenty, there they hunted ; they followed it 

 when it moved away to new hunting- 

 grounds, unless they were prevented by 

 stronger rivals; and to most of the land on 

 which we found them they had no stronger 

 claim than that of having a few years pre- 

 viously butchered the original occupants. 

 When my cattle came to the Little Missouri 

 the region was only inhabited by a score or 

 so of white hunters; their title to it was 

 quite as good as that of most Indian tribes 

 to the lands they claim ; yet nobody dreamed 

 of saying that these hunters owned the coun- 

 try. Each could eventually have kept his 

 own claim of 160 acres, and no more. The 

 Indians should be treated in just the same 

 way that we treat the white settlers. Give 

 each his little claim; if, as would generally 

 happen, he declined this, why then let him 

 share the fate of the thousands of white 



